Device Controllers¶
Reference and analysis material for Norsk Data device controllers
📖 Overview¶
This sub-collection contains original Norsk Data device-controller manuals and the analysis material derived from them - the primary source documents for emulating or reverse-engineering ND peripheral controllers.
Currently covered:
- Ethernet II Controller (ND-12.055.1) plus a unit-test specification derived from it - the ND Ethernet II / LANCE-based network controller and its COSMOS integration.
- ECC Disk Controller (ND-11.013.01A) - the SMD disk controller, including its full IOX programming specification, error-correcting-code scheme, track/sector format and a SINTRAN III SMD disk driver listing.
- SMD Disk Controller (ND-11.020.01) - the later 15 MHz SMD controller.
- Winchester Disk Controller (ND-11.015.01) - the 5 1/4 inch (ST506) & 8 inch Winchester disk controller.
- Floppy Disk System (ND-11.012.01) - the floppy subsystem, drive and controller.
- NORD-10/HAWK Disk Controller (ND-11.010.01) - the earlier HAWK cartridge-disk controller.
Two further NORD-10-era storage manuals - the HAWK Disk System (ND-11.009.01) and the Cartridge Disc System for NORD-10 (ND-11.008.01 / 01A) - are filed with the rest of the NORD-10 documentation in ../10/. The Disk Mirroring Operator Guide (ND-30.070.1) is SINTRAN operator software rather than controller hardware and lives one level up at ../ND-30.070.1 EN Disk Mirroring Operator Guide.md.
The companion software-side manual, ND-60.197.01 Ethernet Basic Software Programmer Guide (the host-to-controller programming contract - service points, datagram API, DIX vs IEEE framing, and the four-physical-address multi-protocol scheme), lives one level up at ../ND-60.197.01 EN Ethernet Basic Software Programmer Guide.md.
Total Collection¶
| Category | Documents | Total Lines |
|---|---|---|
| Manuals | 6 | 29,717 |
| Notes / Test specs | 1 | 2,472 |
| Total | 7 | ~32,000 |
🗂️ Index¶
Ethernet II Controller¶
| Document | Document # | Lines | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethernet II Controller | ND-12.055.1 EN | 2,423 | Ethernet II Controller reference manual - control/status registers, I/O address space, LANCE integration, interrupts, transceiver control, COSMOS statistics. Appendix B compares the 802.3 and Ethernet frame formats; Appendix C tabulates the COSMOS stack (LLC1 / MAC) against the ARPA stack (LLC1 / DIX) |
| Ethernet II Controller - Unit Test Specification | - | 2,472 | Note. Comprehensive unit-test / analysis specification for the ND-12.055.1 controller (initialization, register, I/O, LANCE, interrupt, memory, loopback, transceiver, error-handling and COSMOS-statistics tests) - a test/analysis document, not an original manual |
Key Topics: Ethernet II, LANCE controller, control/status registers, I/O address space, interrupts, transceiver control, loopback, COSMOS network statistics, DIX 2.0 vs IEEE 802.3 framing
Disk Controllers¶
| Document | Document # | Lines | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Error Correction Control (ECC) Disk Controller | ND-11.013.01A EN | 6,550 | SMD disk controller reference manual (original printing 10/78, revision A 06/79) - general description, addressing concept, control/status words, DMA transfer, interrupt generation and handling, debugging guide and per-logic-board descriptions. Appendix G gives the track/sector format, H the backwiring, I the connector lists, J a theoretical introduction to error-correcting codes, K the test programs, L a SINTRAN III SMD disk driver routine listing, M the disk specifications and N the full programming specifications |
| SMD Disk Controller | ND-11.020.01 | 5,244 | The 15 MHz SMD disk controller (the manual's own section title is "15MHZ SMD DISK CONTROLLER"; the sintran.com mirror files it under a mis-transcribed "15MHZ SMB CONTROLLER"). 136 pages, with preface, table of contents, list of illustrations and an appendix. The later companion to the ECC controller above |
| Winchester Disk Controller | ND-11.015.01 | 1,209 | The 5 1/4 inch (ST506) & 8 inch Winchester disk controller (© 1983). Sections: description (disk drive, controller, bad-track handling), programming specifications (IOX address decoding, memory/block address registers, the control word with transfer modes M0-M7, read status register), detailed hardware description (IOX & IDENT, DMA, Shugart drive connection on the 3038 8" controller, serial data), test procedure (DISC-TEMA, SUPER-RANDOM), block/logic diagrams for both the 8" and ST506 variants, Fairchild 9401 description, arrangement drawings and cable signal definitions |
| Floppy Disk System | ND-11.012.01 | 10,007 | Floppy disk subsystem manual, 220 pages - the largest of the storage manuals. Organised into numbered sections (System/General, diskette loading and handling, write protection, ...) plus appendixes |
| NORD-10/HAWK Disk Controller | ND-11.010.01 | 4,284 | The HAWK cartridge-disk controller for NORD-10, 105 pages. Section 1 is the programming specifications, opening with the disk device register addresses. Appendix A diagrams, B signal definition list, C backwiring print, D controller activity indicators, E N-10/HAWK physical layout |
Key Topics: SMD disk interface, 15 MHz SMD controller, ECC error-correcting codes, Winchester ST506 interface, IOX programming specification, disk device register addresses, track/sector format, DMA transfer, interrupt handling, SINTRAN III SMD disk driver, floppy subsystem, HAWK cartridge disk, backwiring and connector lists, signal definition lists, test programs
The reverse-engineered, emulator-facing counterpart to these manuals is ../../SINTRAN/Devices/SMD/SMD-CONTROLLER-PROGRAMMING-GUIDE.md, which derives the SMD register map and I/O sequences from the nd100x emulator and the SINTRAN NPL sources rather than from these documents - so the two are independent descriptions of the same hardware and can be cross-checked against each other.
Part of the NDInsight Norsk Data / SINTRAN III documentation and preservation project. All manuals are Norsk Data A.S publications; copyrights belong to their original holders and are reproduced here for historical and technical reference.